


To Kill A King

by AstratheCatha



Series: Behind the Scenes and New Revelations [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s03e05 The Crystal Cave, Gen, Magic Revealed, Morgana is a spy for Merlin, Spy Morgana
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-17 03:57:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5853193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstratheCatha/pseuds/AstratheCatha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not everyone is good. Not Everyone is bad. Everyone is human. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone makes decisions that they will come to regret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Kill A King

**Author's Note:**

> So here is the sequel that I sort of promised you several months ago. You must read the first one or you will be very confused while reading this one. You might still be confused. A reminder for those who have forgotten, Morgana is a spy for Merlin. She did not side with Morgause. However, they are both pretending to act like they did in canon in order to draw Morgause out.
> 
> This is not a Merlin/Morgana fic. That is not how I wrote it and it is not how it is intended to be read. But, as many great authors have come to discover, I cannot stop you from reading this however you please.
> 
> I don't have a beta, so any and all mistakes are mine and mine alone.
> 
> Disclaimer: If I owned Merlin, well. I don't know what I would be if I owned Merlin. But I don't and I never will, so it doesn't really matter.

I know I left you with a cliff-hanger, but isn’t that what made it a good story. All good stories have cliff-hangers and tension. It is what makes it real. And isn’t that what I am telling you, a real story? You may not believe it, but the events I am telling you were real. If a tree falls a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound? It doesn’t matter if you say it does or doesn’t; it still makes vibrations in the air that a brain, if the corresponding body were there, recognizes as sound. You can argue the philosophical questions all you want, that doesn’t stop the vibrations from occurring. 

But we are getting off topic. On with the story.

Now where was I? Ah, yes. I was explaining the events that occurred when the dead rose in Camelot. Well one of the times the dead rose in Camelot. But that is not important. The dead rose in Camelot a number of times. But what is important were the events surrounding the Crystal Cave. 

Now, nothing much changed in the events leading up to Arthur’s near death; Gaius was still possessed by a goblin and Merlin still met hidden nobility at a bar fight. In fact Merlin and Arthur were still chased by bandits in the woods on that day. Taliesin still healed Arthur and invited Merlin to look within the crystals of the Crystal Cave.

 

Merlin was a nervous as he looked into the crystals. He knew the effect that the images could bring a person. But Taliesin had insisted that he look into the crystals. He saw Morgana struggling with her horse in the courtyard. He saw her unsheathe a beautiful, jeweled dagger. He saw her walking down a castle corridor with her blood red cape. This wasn’t too odd, they were all things that he would expect to see happening in the castle as of late. And Morgana’s birthday was coming up.

Then he saw blood dripping down fingers into a pile of blood. He saw himself screaming into a fire. He seemed angry. It was too much and he had to pull away, but the crystals wouldn’t let him go that easily. Another pulled him into the visions again. He saw the same images repeated again. He saw more.

He saw an angry Morgana draw the dagger from the earlier vision, standing above Uther’s bed. He saw her prepare to stab the dagger. He tried to look away; the Morgana he knew wouldn’t kill Uther. He fell to the ground, but only had a moments of respite before the visions captured him again. He saw Morgana draw the dagger and raise it above her head and slam it down. He saw Uther gasp awake, fear showing plainly on his face.

The visions finally released him. He felt tears well up in his eyes. He didn’t understand what was going on. 

 

Now, I know what you must be thinking. Morgana is good in this version. She is only pretending to be evil. How can the visions still show her killing Uther? Well, you will find out, all in good time. Not all good things come to those who wait, but all that is worthwhile does. It is important to understand that Merlin and Morgana, these are not just characters in the story I am telling, but they were human. They made mistakes. They did things they would come to regret.

Merlin returns to Arthur’s sleeping form and tries to push the visions from his mind. The Morgana he knew, the Morgana who helped him plan the defeat of her own sister, wouldn’t kill Uther. Morgana’s hate for Uther may be second only to the hate she felt towards the sister who tried to use her, but she would never kill him. He tried to make himself believe that. He knew that Arthur could tell something was wrong, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He just wanted to get back to Camelot to talk to Morgana about what he had seen. 

 

“Merlin? What are you doing here?” Morgana asked. As soon as she had opened the door to reveal of distraught Merlin she had pulled him in. It would not do for the Daughter of Camelot to be seen with a servant loitering outside of her door. “What’s wrong?”

“When Arthur and I were attacked by the bandits, he was shot by an arrow. I- I couldn’t save him. I tried, but none of my spells would work. Then this guy came and healed him. He said his name was Taliesin. He took me to the Crystal Cave. It was where the Crystal of Neahtid came from,” Merlin rambled before shutting himself up, looking at the floor. Morgana narrowed her eyes. As much as she has come to trust the hated visions that plague her sleep, she has no love for visions at all. Merlin had told her what he saw in the crystal, when they were still coming to trust each other. She still saw Mordred as that sweet innocent boy that they first found all those years ago. She couldn’t see him killing Arthur.

“Merlin, what did you see?”

The manservant was silent, still looking at the floor. He started the nervously pick at the bedspread beneath him.

“Merlin, tell me what you saw!” Morgana demanded, worried for her friend and what he thought was too terrible to tell her.

“Morgana, I saw you. You had this beautiful dagger with red jewels and you killed Uther with it,” Merlin blurted out, looking up to meet her eye. Morgana 

“He probably will deserve it,” Morgana replied, standing up and walking to the window, not wanting Merlin to see the hatred in her eyes. She didn’t hate him. She hated Uther and all that he stood for.

“Morgana, you can’t!” Merlin said as loudly as he dared. Morgana could hear him stand up, but he didn’t seem to move any closer to her.

“Well, why not? For all we know he threatened to kill me and had already threw you to the fire,” Morgana asked, her eyes glazing over, imagining seeing the man she had come to see as a brother being fed to the flames. She clutched the ledge of her window to control her anger.

“Even if he did, you still shouldn’t kill him! Arthur would never forgive you.” Merlin was practically begging. She could hear it in his voice.

“I think we both know that he can’t stay mad at me for long,” Morgana replied, trying to sound certain, but even she knew it was a weak argument. She finally turned to Merlin, and saw the fear and sadness in his eyes. 

“Morgana, this isn’t you beating him in a fight or giving him a horrible gift for his birthday. We are talking about you killing his father, the only family he has, the last connection to his mother. It would be too much of a betrayal. And, even if he did forgive you, Arthur isn’t ready for the throne. He is still too much of a prat. He still doesn’t trust magic.”

“I guess you’re right.” The words sound hollow, even to her own ears. 

 

You have to realize, that there is no good and there is no bad, not in real life. There is just the protagonist and antagonist. It is simply which side you choose. As much as Morgana is the good guy, or girl, in this story, she is still human. She is still real. She does some bad things. That is just life.

“Gaius, I can’t get these visions out of my head.”

“Merlin, you must be careful. The Crystals are treacherous. What you saw may not be all that it seemed.”

“So I do nothing?

“There is nothing to suggest that what you saw is imminent, is there?”

“No.”

 

And everything seemed to be alright. But the next day, Merlin’s visions came to pass, one by one. Morgana struggled with her horse. Arthur gave her a beautiful bejeweled dagger. And Morgana seemed indifferent to the end of the visions. Merlin didn’t know what scared him more. But he was scared. And in his fear, a torch accidently fell and Morgana fell down a staircase. It is safe to say that Merlin was horrified.

 

“I know she’s dear to you, Sire. But surely you’re not going to risk everything for Morgana?”

“Gaius, you don’t understand. There’s something you should know. Something I’ve told no one. Morgana is my daughter. It was while Gorlois was away.” 

Neither man noticed that Morgana was awake, even if for a short while. Neither man noticed her mind, in its unconscious state hurry to understand this information.

 

"Morgana, you can’t do this! You can’t kill Uther,” Merlin insisted as he stood outside Morgana’s chamber. He had come upon her preparing to leave with her dagger on her belt.

“He deserves to die, Merlin. He lied to me. He lied to my father. He killed hundreds of innocent people! How can you let that man live after everything he has done to our kind?” Morgana replied coolly, moving to brush past him.

“Because I know, one day, Arthur is going to be the greatest king that Albion will ever see,” Merlin replied, grabbing onto her arm.

“Why, because some dragon told you?” Morgana demanded, yanking her arm out of Merlin’s grasp, glaring at the servant.

“No! I know because he help us save Mordred! I know because he is proving that he is not his father. I know because he risked his life to save a simple servant that he barely knew!”

“And I guess his destiny is just a bonus, right?” Morgana said, throwing her hands wide, before turning to storm down the hall towards her supposed birth father’s room.

“Morgana, if I cared about destiny, I wouldn’t have helped you,” Merlin practically shouted. Morgana stopped and turned to the man she didn’t know if she trusted.

“What?”

“Do you remember when you came to me the day that you accidently set fire to your room?” Merlin asked, his eyes hazing over in memory.

“You told me about your magic,” Morgana replied, whispering the last part. The corridor may be empty, but they both know that seemingly empty corridors are not always that empty.

“Before you came, I visited the Great Dragon. He told me it was your destiny to destroy Camelot. He warned me that I should just kill you.”

“Then why didn’t you?” Morgana asked, thoughts of killing Uther, temporarily forgotten.

“Because, my instinct kept telling me that he was wrong. It kept telling me that to tell you about my magic.”

“Merlin…” Morgana started, before she trailed off, not know what to do.

“I had a chance you know,” Merlin practically mumbled, looking down at the floor. 

“A chance to what?” Morgana said, taking a step towards the distraught boy.

“I had a chance to let Uther due. I had the chance to let Arthur kill his own father,” Merlin said, obviously still conflicted by his decision.

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because, Arthur would have never forgiven himself for killing his own father. He would have never forgiven magic for putting him into that position. And because, I cannot say that I would not have done the same if I was in Uther’s position. The mind does stupid things in grief, and although that does not excuse Uther’s actions, it should lesson his punishment,” Merlin mumbled, not able to look his almost sister in the eye.

“But that does not excuse his betrayal of my father, of my mother!” Morgana said, not ready to forgive Uther yet.

“Morgana-” Merlin started, but Morgana quickly cut him off.

“No, Merlin. You cannot change my mind.” Morgana’s voice was once again cold.

“Morgana, a powerful dragon is telling you that you are going to be evil. Since when did you ever do what people told you?” Merlin asked, in his last ditch attempt to convince her to stop what she was doing.

"Merlin, I think you should leave, lest people get the wrong idea of your intentions,” Morgana stated, before brushing past Merlin. He let her. There was nothing else he could think of to stop her. She was on her own now. He only hoped that his words reached her.

 

Later that night Morgana met Merlin outside of Uther’s room

“I have always wanted to prove a dragon wrong.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes I didn't go deep into Morgana's near-death state, but you know it happened and nothing changed so I didn't included. Deal with it.
> 
> Comments are appreciated. Constructive criticism is accepted as long as it is about my work and my writing and not myself. 
> 
> As I stated before, I do not have a beta and any and all mistakes are my own. Any and all mistakes pointed out to me will be corrected at the earliest convenience.
> 
> I may add more to this series. The more comments that I get the more that it is going to be on my mind meaning the more likely I am going to be inspired for more parts. However, that is not a promise.


End file.
